Team USA | Katie Ledecky & Women’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay Kick Off Paris 2024 Swimming With Medals

Lower than an hour after Ledecky gained bronze, 4×100-meter freestyle relay newcomers Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass, and Torri Huske, and Olympic veteran Simone Manuel threw down an American document (3:30.20) within the relay, claiming the silver medal.

Forward of the Individuals, Australia gained its fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal within the occasion, with China in third.

After their bronze-medal efficiency on the Tokyo Olympic Video games three years in the past (3:32.81), behind Australia and Canada, the American ladies set their sights on the American document right here in Paris.

“It was a purpose of ours to interrupt the American document and get as near Australians as we might,” stated Manuel. “So we’re actually proud of our efficiency.”

Huske, Walsh, and Douglass obtained their first style of Olympic {hardware} within the 4×100 freestyle relay. Earlier within the night, Walsh set the Olympic document within the 100-meter butterfly semifinals and introduced her “entrance finish” pace into the relay.

For Manuel — a two-time Olympic veteran who gained 4 Olympic medals on the 2016 Rio Olympic Video games and a silver within the 4×100 free relay in Tokyo — this relay marked a satisfying return to Olympic competitors after she struggled with overtraining within the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Video games.

“It simply feels good to be again right here, actually,” stated Manuel, who anchored the relay — a roll she has not had for 5 years. “I did not know if I might ever be acting at this degree once more, so simply to have the complete circle second of being on this relay once more, from 2021 to now, in a happier and more healthy place I believe is actually particular.”

Crew USA has gained a medal within the ladies’s 4×100 free relay in each Olympic Video games since 1920, when the U.S. first despatched feminine swimmers to the Video games. The one yr they missed: 1980 when the U.S. boycotted the Olympic Video games. The American ladies final gained gold within the 4×100 free relay on the 2000 Video games.

Swimming resumes on Sunday, with Walsh going for her first particular person Olympic gold medal within the ladies’s 100-meter butterfly.

“This morning, not that I used to be disenchanted within the swim, however I used to be actually nervous, and I wanted to get that swim out of the way in which and simply depart the nerves within the pool,” Walsh stated of her first day competing at an Olympic Video games. “I believe I did that as a result of I used to be capable of come out tonight and use my front-end pace and simply get to the wall and put up a extremely good time for myself.

“And I believe it units me up very well for tomorrow night time.”